That meant that two good things had happened. Pospisil actually gathered himself, after a discussion with the chair umpire that involved the word “fines,” and went on to win the match. It took four giant whacks into the hard-court surface before the handle parted ways with the rest of the racket, but Pospisil got it done. So, had Ivanisevic been here watching when veteran Vasek Pospisil of Canada lost his serve to go behind in the third set, 3-1, and promptly demolished his racket, he would have been proud. The next day, clearly concerned about this breach of a tennis skill, Ivanisevic conducted a verbal clinic in his post-match news conference on the skills and technique involved in making sure that the racket would break. Once, here at Indian Wells, he saw another player try to smash his racket and fail. He did it with pride, with classic follow-through, with not only intent but certainty that the frame would smash and he would lose a point and several thousand dollars. More than his huge serve and fine forehands, backhands and volleys, Ivanisevic possessed the finest racket throw in the history of the game. Speaking of noise and controversy, there actually was some here Thursday night, and it brought back memories of the great and semi-wacko Goran Ivanisevic, the delightful Croatian, who always told it like he thought it was - especially to umpires, linesmen and sportswriters - and somehow survived all that to win a Wimbledon title in 2001 after being runner-up three times. Open champions are among those competing. The BNP Paribas Open returns to Indian Wells after the coronavirus sidelined the event for two years. Indian Wells tennis tournament returns from hiatus with a different feel This way, they won’t have to buy the ball kids hamburgers anymore. It will be a huge savings for tournaments, which is the genesis for all these things. There are still ball kids, but how long do you think that will last? Some geek is surely sitting somewhere in a dingy basement, inventing an app that will allow the chair umpire to activate an on-court vacuum that will scoop up all the balls and bounce them gently to the serving player. Players watch the close-call review quietly, shrug and carry on. But golly, do you think the machine that made the call is going to show that it made a mistake? To the surprise of no one, zero corrections have occurred. Players get to ask for a “close-call” review. That makes the chair ump job mostly button-pushing. There are no lines people anymore, only a chair umpire who, most probably, will never reverse a call. That meant that, were they to question a call by a linesperson, the chair umpire would call for an electronic review, Hawk-Eye would replay the shot on a big screen and the crowd would cheer or moan, depending on their allegiance, as they saw the electronic evidence of the shot’s landing spot. In the recent past, the scoreboard listed a number of challenges for each player.
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